On 3 Mar 2009 at 11:49:01 -0500, Gwern Branwen wrote:
All of those are pretty interesting things - what side of the road tells you both historical information, and also is terribly practical if you're there*
- Although one certainly hopes that anyone driving in a particular
country will not need Wikipedia to tell them something like this!
I could see the Simpsons cartoon doing something around this... The Simpson family has just landed in a foreign country, and Homer has rented a car, a new high-tech model with built in Internet access. He suddenly realizes he doesn't know whether to drive on the left or the right in that country, and brings up the Wikipedia page to look it up. At that moment, back in Springfield, one of the school bullies (isn't one of them named Jimbo?) has just vandalized the country's Wikipedia article to change the driving side to the opposite of its correct value, and thus Homer starts driving on the wrong side, honking and cursing out all the other drivers who he says are all doing it wrong. "Hey, you guys, you're supposed to be driving on the left! Wikipedia says so!" Then the other drivers, prompted by Homer's advice, pull up the Wikipedia page in their own Internet-enabled cars, and realize they've been driving wrong all their lives, and all switch to the opposite side.
On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 1:53 AM, Daniel R. Tobias dan@tobias.name wrote:
On 3 Mar 2009 at 11:49:01 -0500, Gwern Branwen wrote:
All of those are pretty interesting things - what side of the road tells you both historical information, and also is terribly practical if you're there*
- Although one certainly hopes that anyone driving in a particular
country will not need Wikipedia to tell them something like this!
I could see the Simpsons cartoon doing something around this...
You sure your name isn't Matt Groening? :-)
The Simpson family has just landed in a foreign country, and Homer has rented a car, a new high-tech model with built in Internet access. He suddenly realizes he doesn't know whether to drive on the left or the right in that country, and brings up the Wikipedia page to look it up. At that moment, back in Springfield, one of the school bullies (isn't one of them named Jimbo?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Springfield_Elementary_School_students#...
has just vandalized the country's Wikipedia article to change the driving side to the opposite of its correct value, and thus Homer starts driving on the wrong side, honking and cursing out all the other drivers who he says are all doing it wrong. "Hey, you guys, you're supposed to be driving on the left! Wikipedia says so!" Then the other drivers, prompted by Homer's advice, pull up the Wikipedia page in their own Internet-enabled cars, and realize they've been driving wrong all their lives, and all switch to the opposite side.
Sounds eerily prescient.
Carcharoth